Christmas Season Swift KickThey brag it was the biggest workplace bust ever. In a political move both
mean spirited and bizarre, ICE raided six Swift meatpacking plants this week,
rounding up 1300 of the usual suspects, some desperately trying to hide in
cattle pens. La migra later acknowledged “dozens” of those led out
handcuffed, still in sometimes bloody work clothes, were actually U.S. citizens
who were guilty only of fitting a Latino profile.

Those
picked up without acceptable paper work will at least be targeted for
deportation. A few will face criminal charges for “identity theft.” That sounds
bad. Usually identity theft means impersonating someone to gain access to bank
and credit card accounts in order to rob them. In this case it is alleged that
undocumented workers purchased real names with legitimate social security
numbers to avoid being flagged for “no match” violations—assumed names and
numbers sometimes given to employers that don’t correspond to social security
records. The main impact on the “victims” being impersonated would be additional
contributions to their social security account through the work of those now
arrested.

Five
of the six plants are represented by the United Food & Commercial Workers. The
union’s lawyers “can't serve our members, can't provide them with legal counsel,
because we don't know where they are,” said Dave Minshall, spokesman for Local
7.

The
massive raids broke up families, sometimes leaving children abandoned. There was
one case of a nursing mother being separated from her infant child. Many
vulnerable workers not arrested had to stop going to work, laying low. A big
blow to these working class communities.

As a
matter of fact many more would have been apprehended if they had not been tipped
off. Swift knew about the planned raids well in advance. The company even tried
unsuccessfully to get a judge to issue a restraining order against ICE. Some in
Swift management quietly passed warnings along to their workers. ICE later fumed
that they had missed at least 400 “suspects” because of management leaks.

Swift
was caught up in the hypocritical double dealing of the ruling class on
immigration. A few years ago, Swift settled what the Justice Department called
the largest employment discrimination case based on immigration status in
history for demanding documentation from workers who appeared to be Latino. Now
they are threatened with reprisals from Homeland Security for being lax in
verifying their workers are “legal.” This morning’s Los Angeles Times
quotes the Homeland Security czar: “‘We all know the primary economic engine
that draws in illegal migration is work,’ Chertoff said a day after the Swift
raids. ‘And when businesses are built upon systemic violations of the law … that
is a problem we have to attack.’”

An
additional problem for anti-immigrant forces is that this same “economic engine”
Chertoff touts as a threat to national security is also the engine that drives
profits in key sectors of the economy. Meatpacking, where immigrants now make up
a majority of the workforce, is a prime example. AP writer Roxana Hegeman
summarized the packinghouse situation well:

“....in the 1960s and 1970s the industry shifted away from the urban areas in
the Midwest and located to the Great Plains, where they drew more on immigrant
labor.

“Accompanying the wage drop was the decline of unions in the plants. In the late
1970s, about 45 percent of the meatpacking industry was unionized. By the late
1980s, that had dropped to 21 percent as more immigrants took jobs in the
industry....”

Of
course, meat packing is not alone. Millions of immigrants toil in unorganized
manufacturing plants, often doing work outsourced from union plants. They are a
growing component of nonunion mining; a significant part of construction, hotel,
and restaurant labor; and probably now a majority in janitor services.

The
bosses need these workers. Sometimes belatedly, most unions have come to
recognize that they need to organize these workers rather than call for their
deportation. So why this massive, well staged raid?

The
Bush administration desperately wants to use such cruel stunts to shift the
focus of political debate away from the war, and other major issues of concern.
They turn to once reliable appeals to national security interests, throwing in
the more recent scare of identity theft. With some help from the likes of Pat
Buchanan and Lou Dobbs they also hope to sell the scam that illegal immigrants
are the cause of the demise of the “middle class.”

Some
reactionary state and city officials try to emulate Washington’s example on the
local level, mobilizing their cops to work with ICE. This week, law students at
Yale University put together a suit seeking to expose the role of the Mayor of
Danbury, Connecticut in a joint sting operation with ICE to lure undocumented
workers into a trap with offers of work. The Free the Danbury 11 Committee has a
new website with much useful
information and a worthy appeal for help that deserves support.

Protests were quickly organized in the communities affected by the Swift raids.
Tomorrow, unions will be joining with immigrant rights groups fora rally at the St Paul office of Senator Coleman. But much more is needed.

The labor, immigrant rights, and civil liberties
movements need to make a united , massive response to Homeland Security,
reactionary local officials, and the new Democrat congress that will be taking
up immigration “reform”—no worker is illegal!

Strike FrontYesterday was a National Day of Action in support of USW Goodyear workers,
on strike since October 5. There was leafleting and bannering at 150 Goodyear
stores across the country. I participated in the action at a Northland Goodyear
dealer in Antioch Center. There were perhaps forty of us from unions such as
UAW, SEIU, IAM, and my ATU Local, as well as some USW representatives and
strikers. Some of us wore our Labor Party caps and buttons. A candidate for
mayor made a cameo appearance as well.

These modest actions come at a crucial time. Both
sides are hurting. It’s tough for workers to face Christmas time after so many
lost pay checks. While Goodyear has maintained some production with salaried
staff and temporary scabs the union estimates they’re only running at twenty
percent of normal (the company claims half.) Talks are scheduled to resume
tomorrow. But, considering Goodyear took out a billion dollar loan at the
beginning of the strike, it’s hard to be optimistic about chances for a quick
settlement.

The Financial Times reports discussions
about a limited application of a Taft-Hartley injunction to order about 200 (out
of 1300) workers at the Topeka plant back to work—on Humvee tires. The Army
claims they are running short and Topeka is the sole supplier. Of course,
another option would be to park these magnets for IEDs and let the GIs catch up
on their mail back home.

The
Goodyear strikers are showing remarkable spirit in this battle. If you haven’t
yet seen it, check out the moving
video–The
Goodyear Christmas Story
produced by strikers in Buffalo. I was gratified to see they used one of my
photos from a November 6 Topeka rally.

The
USW is considering a five dollar a month assessment on all members to go to the
15,000 strikers. In the meantime you can help with a contribution by clickinghere.

Last
week I mentioned another important strike, going on at the Raytheon guided
missile plant in Tucson. Our friends at Labor Standard have put together
an excellent collection of articles about this battle which you can readhere.

‘Goddess of the Yangtze’
Extinct—Who’s Next?The baiji, a nearly blind white dolphin that flourished in the eastern
stretches of China’s Yangtze River for twenty million years, is now extinct.
Being worshiped as a goddess wasn’t enough to protect this mammal from the
escalating disruption of ship sonar. China’s very pro-capitalist development
Communist government had hoped that the species that lived in these waters long
before any humans appeared on the scene would become a marketable asset— like
the Panda. But increased shipping to serve the demands of the Wal-Marts of the
world outpaced efforts to sell the baiji to those able to adopt and profitably
display them.

Deferred TransitBecause of space constraints I will hold over to next week comments on
important transit worker developments in New York City and British Columbia.

Hang On ComcastReadersThanks to all Comcast users who subscribe to this column by e-mail for your
patience. The e-mail service we use—IntelliContact—has long been on the
so-called “white list” of services that are tough on spammers, and automatically
cleared by most ISPs. Nevertheless, we periodically have problems with Comcast
blocking all of our list messages.

Some
of you have asked what you can do about this. I wish I had a simple answer but I
don’t. I will continue to find alternative ways to get these messages to you.
You may want to consider using Yahoo, AOL, or some other free web based e-mail
for your mailing lists. You can always find the current Week In Review—as well
as all the past ones—posted on theLabor Advocate
Online page.

As usual, much of the material for this column
was based on stories posted on theDaily Labor News Digest,
updated Monday-Saturday by 7AM Central.